Healthy Eater: Decoding the differences in eggs

Eggs come in different colors under different labels, but they're the key ingredient for spicy shakshuka.

By Shane Hoover Repository staff writer

CANTON Drive Stark County’s rural roads and you won't travel more than mile or two before passing a sign touting brown eggs for sale.

While eggs come in any number of colors — white, speckled, olive, mint green, light blue, pinkish —brown seems to be the most common alternative to white in our locale.

But what's in a color?

Egg color is determined by genetics, and certain breeds of hen lay certain colors. So knowing your colors will tell you if an Olive Egger (green) rather than an Ameraucana (blue) laid the eggs for your omelet.

But hue has nothing to do with the flavor of an egg, nor its nutritional value; those factors depend on a hen’s diet, according to the University of Illinois Extension. From personal experience, I’ve had brown eggs with relatively flavorless yolks and brown eggs with the thickest, most glorious marigold yolks I’ve ever tasted.

Like shell color, egg-carton labels aren’t always a good indication of what’s inside an egg.

On a recent trip to the grocery store, I spied eggs for sale under all sorts of labels: “cage free,” “organic,” “free range,” “certified humane,” alongside the familiar U.S. Department of Agriculture grades of AA and A.

What do the labels mean?

Let’s start with USDA grading, which is voluntary and paid for by egg producers. Eggs are graded by the quality of their yolks, whites and shell condition, with AA eggs being nearly perfect.

“Cage free” means the hens can walk around inside a warehouse, but generally don’t have access to the outdoors. “Free range” means the birds have some access to the outside, according to USDA.

“USDA Organic” means hens are given feed grown without synthetic pesticides, fungicides, herbicides and fertilizers. Animal by-products, antibiotics and genetically modified products are banned from feed. The birds also are supposed to have access to the outdoors.

There’s no USDA definition for “pasture raised,” but Humane Farm Animal Care, a nonprofit certification organization, has developed standards for “pasture raised,” and “free range” as part of its Certified Humane label, but not all producers submit to HFAC inspections.

Once you have your eggs, it’s time to cook. Today we’re making shakshuka, a dish of eggs poached in a spicy tomato sauce. It’s particularly popular in North Africa, Israel, southern Europe and parts of the Middle East. Stateside, you might know it as Eggs in Hell.

Will Kessel, the husband of Engagement Editor Laura Kessel, recommended I try a recipe that appeared in "The New York Times." It had simple ingredients, straightforward steps and serves about four.

The nice thing about shakshuka is that it’s flexible. It works as a dish for either breakfast or dinner, and you can use meats, olives, spices and other ingredients to suit your taste.

I added spinach, cut the amount of cheese and adjusted the cooking times. You can see my take below.

Reach Shane at 330-580-8338 or shane.hoover@cantonrep.com

On Twitter: shooverREP

SHAKSHUKA

Ingredients

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 large onion, thinly sliced

1 large bell pepper, thinly sliced

3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1 cup of raw spinach, chopped

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon paprika

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

3/4 cup of feta cheese crumbles

6 large eggs

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Heat oil in a cast-iron skillet (10 inches in diameter or larger) on medium-low heat.

Cook onions and peppers slowly until soft, about 20 minutes.

Add garlic, spinach, cumin, paprika and cayenne. Cook for another 5 minutes or until garlic is tender.